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As the international community works this year to address the challenges of climate change and promote sustainable development, efforts to expand access to clean energy should be placed near the top of the agenda, write Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Lord Nicholas Stern in Project Syndicate.

New Delhi – August 3, 2015: India can significantly boost economic performance and ensure the well-being of its people through reforms in cities, energy, and land use, according to research from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, launched in New Delhi today at an event with Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Environment, Forests & Climate Change.

President Calderón, Chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate: “We welcome the pledges by 13 major US companies to substantially decrease their carbon footprints and invest in renewable energy. Climate commitments by businesses are gaining momentum as we recognize that the low-carbon economy is better for growth than the high-carbon alternative.

A new report released by the Global Commission on the Economy and the Climate identifies ten key economic opportunities that could close up to 96 percent of the gap between business-as-usual emissions and the level needed to limit dangerous climate change.

To meet the goals of raising living standards, tackling poverty and reducing climate risk together, the scale and speed of change must accelerate, spurred on by cooperation both internationally and between the public and private sectors, write President Felipe Calderón and Lord Nicholas Stern in USA Today.

"Global warming and climate change may be issues that belong in the realm of science but the human activities with which they are associated must be subject to ethics. When in the book of Genesis we were entrusted with God´s Creation, we were made responsible for its well-being. Climate change affects not only Creation, but also our neighbors - our fellow men, women and children – who are already impacted by droughts, hunger, and hurricanes," said President Felipe Calderón, Chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and the Climate.

As part of a series of events in the run-up to the highly anticipated papal encyclical on climate change, the New Climate Economy was invited to provide a strong economic and business voice to demonstrate that climate action and economic growth can and should occur together for a just transition to a low-carbon economy.

The U.S. shale gas revolution has dramatically increased supplies of low-cost natural gas, upended U.S. coal markets, and led many electric utilities to switch from coal to natural gas, reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. While there remain concerns about some of the impacts of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), the trend toward increasing use of natural gas is widely expected to continue.